If you would like more information on Benin arts or history, please consult this reading list compiled by the curator. Most of these books are available in the Ryerson Library.

Information on hours and access to the Ryerson library available here.

Reading List

Ben-Amos, Paula and Arnold Rubin, editors. 1983. The Art of Power, the Power of Art: Studies in Benin Iconography. Museum of Cultural History, UCLA, monograph series 19.

Ben-Amos, Paula Girshick. 1995. The Art of Benin. Revised edition. Smithsonian Institution Press.

Ben-Amos, Paula Girshick. 1999. Art, Innovation and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Benin. Indiana University Press.

Berzock, Kathleen Bickford. 2008. Benin: Royal Arts of a West African Kingdom. Exh. cat. Art Institute of Chicago.

Blackmun, Barbara W. 1990. “Oba’s Portraits in Benin.” African Arts 23, 3 (July), pp. 61–69, 102–04.

Blackmun, Barbara W. 1991. “Who Commissioned the Queen Mother Tusks? A Problem in the Chronology of Benin Ivories.” African Arts 24, 2 (April), pp. 54–65, 90–91.

Blier, Suzanne Preston. 1998. “The Benin Kingdom: Politics, Religion, and Natural Order.” In Royal Arts of Africa: The Majesty of Form. Laurence King.

Bradbury, R. E. 1973. Benin Studies. Edited by Peter Morton-Williams. Oxford University Press.

Coombes, Annie E. 1994. Reinventing Africa: Museums, Material Culture and Popular Imagination.Yale University Press.

Curnow, Kathy. 1997. “The Art of Fasting: Benin’s Auge Ceremony.” African Arts 30, 4 (Autumn), pp. 46–53, 93–94.

Dark, Philip J.C. 1982. An Illustrated Catalogue of Benin Art. G.K. Hall & Co.

Duchâteau, Armand. 1994. Benin: Royal Art of Africa from the Museum für Völkerkunde, Vienna. Prestel.

Egharevba, Jacob U. 1968. A Short History of Benin. 1936. 4th edition. Ibadan University Press.

Ezra, Kate. 1992. Royal Art of Benin: The Perls Collection. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Freyer, Bryna. 1987. Royal Benin Art in the Collection of the National Museum of African Art. National Museum of African Art by the Smithsonian Institution Press.

Gore, Charles. 1997. “Casting Identities in Contemporary Benin.” African Arts 30, 3 (Summer), pp. 54–61, 93.

Home, Robert. 1982. City of Blood Revisited: A New Look at the Benin Expedition of 1897. Rex Collings.

Igbafe, Philip Aigbana. 1970. “The Changing Status of the Oba of Benin under Colonial Rule since Independence.” In Michael Crowder and Obaro Ikime, editors, West African Chiefs: Their Changing Status under Colonial Rule and Independence. Africana Publishing Company.

Igbafe, Philip Aigbana. 1970. “The Fall of Benin: A Reassessment.” The Journal of African History 11, 3, pp. 385–400.

Jones, Adam. 1998. Olfert Dapper’s Description of Benin, 1668. African Studies Program, University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Luschan, Felix von. 1919. Die Altertümer von Benin. 3 volumes. Vereinigung wissenschaftlicher Verleger.

Nevadomsky, Joseph. 1986. “The Benin Bronze Horseman as the Ata of Idah.” African Arts 19, 4 (August), pp. 40–47, 85.

Nevadomsky, Joseph. 1997. “Contemporary Art and Artists in Benin.” African Arts 30, 4 (Autumn), pp. 54–63, 94–95.

Plankensteiner, Barbara, ed. 2007. Benin—Kings and Rituals: Court Arts from Nigeria.Exh. cat. Kunsthistoriches Museum Vienna mit MVK und ÖTM/Snoeck.

Ryder, Alan. 1969. Benin and the Europeans, 1485–1897. Longmans.

Willett, Frank. 1967. Ife in the History of West African Sculpture. McGraw-Hill Book Company.

Exhibition Catalogue

Berzock, Kathleen Bickford. 2008. Benin: Royal Arts of a West African Kingdom. Exh. cat. Art Institute of Chicago.
Available in the Museum Shop.